


Blood In the Water

by Azallock



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe -Pacific Rim, Angst, Bisexual Lance, Character Death, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Drama, Gay Keith, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Italian Pidge | Katie Holt, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance is a little ooc i think, M/M, PACIFIC RIM AU!, Pacific Rim Klance AU, Samoan Hunk (Voltron), Trigger Warning: Gore, Voltron, allura is a straight up lesbian just fyi, at this point im too absorbed in it to stop, i think i should put a tw for gore, keith is oblivious, shiro and matt are in a relationship, tbh im not even sure why i started writing this, there will be some pining from lance, this au will be slightly different from the PR movies because i have to be original, you get this gist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 20:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14269407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azallock/pseuds/Azallock
Summary: Lance is twelve when the Kaiju's first came through the Breach, completely destroying his hometown in Cuba. He and his siblings survive and move to the United States where they live safely. Although, Lance has wanted to be a Jaeger pilot since the first attack that took his parents lives. At seventeen, he and his best friend Hunk pass the exam to join the Pan Pacific Defense Garrison and are sent to Alaska where Lance meets Keith, the only cadet to be assigned to pilot a Jaeger into battle so far.





	Blood In the Water

When they first came through the Breach, they brought with them calamity and fear. They wreaked havoc on coastal cities, tearing million dollar buildings down to crumble and destroying families with deaths to their loved ones. These creatures-aliens-did not come from the sky like millions thought they would, instead they crawled and dragged themselves from the ocean floor, swimming up to the surface only to set their sights on destruction.

And that’s exactly what happened. Humans were weak. They lacked the means to take the invaders out and so they died as a result. These giant aliens, named Kaiju’s, began to push the limits of human knowledge and technology, forcing the brightest mind and the strongest people to create a better option and safer way to live in the world that was being attacked.

And so the first stance started with the creation of Jaegers, giant mecha robots that gave the power of a god to two humans.

It was revolutionary. It was exactly what the humans needed and it worked. With the Jaegers humanity started its fight back and they began to win. They were good at it too. Really good.

When the attacks first started, when the first Kaiju came crawling up from the Breach, Lance was twelve. He lived in Cuba with his mom and dad, his two younger brothers and his older sister and their small herd of chickens. At the time, Cuba hadn’t heard anything of Kaiju’s, this island didn’t get the messages sent by other countries and when it arrived no one was prepared for it.

His parents gave him permission to take his younger brother Marco to the park and play. The park itself wasn’t very far from Lance’s house, maybe a decent walk, but it was nothing that Lance and his siblings weren’t used to. Lance held his little brothers hand as they stumbled towards the park, a smile as bright as the Cuban sun beating down on them.

“Did you only bring me here because you wanted to talk to that girl again?” questioned Marco, letting go of Lance’s hand in favor of running his finger over his newly acquired scabs. He pursed his lips as one of the scabs opened up enough to let a pin drop of blood through.

“No!” yelled Lance in a panic. He crossed his arms and looked away from his little brother, a blush on his cheeks and a guilty look swimming in his eyes. A moment later he mumbled out another word, “Maybe.”

“Loser,” laughed Marco, stopping momentarily. He grinned up at Lance, a joking look in his eyes and a mischievous twitch to his lips. Lance squinted at him and leaned closer, suspicious of the eight year old mischief maker. Lance stood back up to his full height and stepped away from Marco, watching him like a hawk though. Marco beamed at his older brother and skipped ahead. “Don’t worry! I’ll ask her out for you!”

It took Lance a second longer than it should have to fully understand his brother’s words, but once he did, hell broke loose and the tan skinned boy ran after Marco, shouting and telling him to wait. As an unfortunate turn of events, Marco reached the park first and went into hiding, making Lance’s manhunt all the more harder.

“Marco!” called out Lance, in an attempt to lure his brother from wherever the little hellion was hiding at, as expected, that worked about as well as using a single paper towel to get water out of a sinking boat. So the Cuban boy stalked around, keeping his eyes peeled and looking in all the obvious hiding places for Marco, only to come up empty. Lance found the girl he had talked to (note: he’d only done such a thing once and even that time he ended up freezing and sputtering when she actually laughed at one of his pickup lines) and shimmied over to where she and her small group of friends was swinging and talking.

“Have you seen a miniature eight year old?” started Lance, his hands coming up to gauge his younger brothers height. He gestured to where his ribs just stopped by his waist and looked up to make sure the girl was looking at him. She was. “He’s about this tall and looks like he can and will trick you into buying food for him. So, have you seen him?” The girl smiled and nodded, her friends continuing their conversation without her.

“He ran passed here a few minutes ago and looked to be going towards the beach,” answered the girl, her hair whipping into her face causing her to flinch and attempt to pull it from her eyes and mouth. Lance groaned and then thanked the girl, a small blush rising the heat in his cheeks.

Of course! Of course, that little hellion had ran from the scene and was at the beach! He should have known that the second he was out of Lance’s sight, he’d make a run for it, however, Lance couldn’t blame the younger boy as Lance had been a menace and would regularly run to the ocean whenever he could get out of the house without his parents noticing. That was one of the only other similar aspects that the other had obtained. It was nearly hysterical how they were so similar, yet so different, but what could they do?

Lance huffed as he legged it out of the other park entrance and followed the long, winding and sandy path to the beach, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of his little brothers familiar grey shirt. Once he reached the beach, he spotted Marco playing with a group of boys his age, completely dominating them in a game of beach tag. Lance’s initial panic calmed and he decided to toe off his flip-flops and sit in the sand, his feet digging into it and curling, letting the salt water lap at his toes and ankles.

“So! Did you talk to her?” came Marco’s sneaky voice from behind Lance. The boy turned around, tearing his eyes from the sea and giving his little brother a deadpanned look.

“Yes. And you-” started Lance. “-are a sneaky little weirdo!” Marco grinned brightly, rubbing the back of his head in guilt, before gesturing towards his friends.

“You should come play with us. We need some better competition and you’re the best at tag,” suggested Marco, boosting Lance’s confidence. Lance saw this and nodded, knowing his brother had a way of knowing what to say to help the moment even if he couldn’t even feel or tell what was happening.

Lance stood up and grabbed his flip-flops from the sand and carried them with him over to where Marco had ran off towards. On his relatively short walk to the small group of boys, he glanced at the ocean and watched it, taking note that only moments before it had been mostly calm and now the waves were pushing beach goers up the shoreline. He stopped, seeing something large and black bob in the water, his eyes attempting to focus on it only to widen when it began to get closer and larger, rising up from the cercelan waves.

Crawling from the ocean was a sort of giant crab looking creature, towering at nearly three hundred feet and walking on eight legs, like a normal crab. It was black and grey in color and had a texture that looked rougher than anything Lance had seen before. It had four pinchers, so unlike normal crabs who only had two, and a large mountainous shell on its back. Lance could see from his spot rooted on the beach, six horrific glowing purple eyes, constantly moving and trying to find whatever it was it was looking for. The only time it’s eyes stopped moving was when it locked onto the running beach goers and heard the sound of screaming people. It stopped walking towards the shore, pausing and staring unnervingly so. Then, as if signaling to them-humans-that it was about to attack, it roared, opening the four large and gruesome parts that made up its mouth and let loose the terrible sound.

Lance’s eyes widened even further as he grabbed Marco’s paralyzed hand and pulled him away from the ocean and its sandy beaches. He didn’t know what to do, everything was in a sort of chaos. His beautiful paradise was now that a chaotic paradise, one full of screaming panic and uneasy fear. Lance only had one other place to go and that was to go back to his and Marco’s home to warn his family of what was coming.

Behind them, the horribly deafening footfalls of that creature were like the drummings of a war drum, one that sounded only when death was inevitable. There was the crashing of the ocean waves and screams of people, some of the screams cut off abruptly, causing an unnatural feeling to rise in Lance’s chest as he ran. People were shoving, pulling, trampling and pushing other people out of the way, attempting, if only to give them a moment more, to spare their own lives.

They ran all the way back to the house, panting heavily in fear and exhaustion. Lance’s throat was sore and raspy, feeling like he had just taken a bite out of a mountainside and tried to swallow it, not realizing it would be jagged and tear his insides up. Marco was paler than he should have been, eyes left in a perpetual state of trepidation, his hand clamped onto Lance’s, feeling like he’d never release his older brothers hand again.

They threw open the door, startling Veronica and Louis, who were giggling and chatting. Lance couldn’t bring himself to cry, only to placidly, if not borderline emotionlessly, speak.

“We have to get out and away from here,” mumbled the twelve year old boy. Veronica raised her eyebrows. Being the oldest sibling was already a job, but also having to be in charge while their parents were out at the market was something else.

“Why? What’s going on?” asked Veronica, only thinking this would make him drop the prank that she was sure he and Marco were pulling, but something about the petrified expression on Marco’s face and the blank, none smiling expression on Lance’s seemed to tell her something else.

“I-it came… it came from the ocean and… and it’s coming after… coming after us!” stuttered and stumbled Marco, tears welling up in his trepidation filled eyes. Veronica stood up, all smiles in the house dissolved, her serious face on.

“What came from the-” it might have been funny to Lance: the timing of the monsters roar. It wasn’t now. Had this not been a serious situation, he might have even cracked a grin and said something along the lines of, “That. That came from the ocean,” as if to be funny, but he wasn’t. “What is that!?”

“We have to go now!” said Lance urgently. Veronica nodded, grabbing Louis’ hand and pulling him after Lance and Marco as they ran through the streets heading in the opposite direction of whatever it was.

Veronica might have been the oldest, even if it was by two years, but Lance, despite being the jokester he was, was always more mature than her mentally. It was almost alarming at the change that had happened in less than twenty minutes, starting from when he and Marco first left and to now.

As they raced and dragged each other through the crowded, screaming streets, Veronica couldn’t help but begin to notice the enormous, terranical creature that was smashing and tearing things down. It was almost something straight out of a movie, she thought. This wasn’t a movie and whatever that thing was wasn’t just C.G.I., it was real and it was going to destroy everything and everyone in its path of destruction. So, Veronica closed her eyes for a moment, squeezing them shut so that she could think of some solution or place to get that they’d be safe. The metaphorical light bulb went off in her mind and her eyes snapped open. She knew of two places they’d be safe, but one was far more dangerous to get to than to hide in.

“We can go to the church! They have a basement! It might be shallow but its below ground!” shouted out Veronica, hoping that they wouldn’t have to use the other option. Lance looked back at her, the once calming blues of his eyes, violent and dark like the ocean during a storm. He looked like he was contemplating, but a shadow passed his face and he turned his head back around and continued to run.

“No! Other people are probably there and there’s probably not enough room for anyone else,” retorted Lance and for once Veronica didn’t argue with him. He wasn’t entirely wrong, it would probably be a place that other people had thought of and would therefore be completely over encumbered with people of the town.

Veronica hesitated and then stopped abruptly, Louis running into her back and making her stumble forwards. Lance seemed to notice the lack of sound from his older sister and younger brother so he looked back and stopped. This time, in his eyes, he showed his panic and utter fright.

“What are you doing?! We have to run!” yelled Lance, the panic seeping into his voice. He suddenly sounded nothing like he had only moments before.

“The cove! We can hide in the cove!” stammered Veronica, pointing back towards the creature which had now started destroying the park and houses close to the beach. “If we can get passed it, we can hide in the cove and hopefully survive until it passes!” It was quiet between the four of them, but the world around them cried in pain, deep scars being pried open on its surface.

Lance nodded hastily, following his older sister, hoping that she would take the lead, while he fought to keep his emotions under control. He didn’t want to show that he was breaking down and scare the twins even more than they already were.

As hard as it looked, getting passed the creature, without it noticing them, was surprisingly simple as it was too focused on smashing everything else. Lance, Veronica, Louis and Marco bypassed one of its many legs and ran around the bend of the beach, rushing into the small alcove that had a few inches of water on the ground between the rocks. Their feet splashed in the salt water, spraying it on their ankles and wetting their capris and shorts. They moved to the very back of the cove, huddling together and panting.  
There was no one else in the cove, which was kind of a shock to the two older siblings, but not a complaint, but they only hoped their parents were somewhere safe.

“What about Mom and Dad?” cried Louis, wiping his eyes and grasping Veronica and Lance’s shirts tightly. The two looked at each other.

“Mom and Dad will be fine, I’m sure,” reassured Lance, although, he couldn’t even bring himself to believe his own words. There were many scenarios that swept through Lance and Veronica’s minds, confronting their deepest fears, but the two fought those fears, fought them and tried to be positive, even if it was only a front for the twins and each other.

“They were on the other side of town, so chances are that they’re completely fine,” agreed Veronica, a slight unease to her voice, but she cleared her throat to rid herself of it. However, their parents weren’t okay, those chances, the ones they thought were slim, were in fact, much larger than predicted.

The creature stayed long into the evening, destroying and killing hundreds and thousands. It passed through the town and continued on its path eventually disappearing back into the ocean after it wreaked havoc on a few other towns and the larger cities of Cuba.

Lance and his siblings didn’t leave the cove for nearly a day and a half afterwards, too afraid of it coming back. When they crawled out of the cove, their entire town had been destroyed, people were dead on the streets, having been trampled in the riots, some had been crushed under debris that was from falling buildings, others were simply just crushed underfoot of the beast and laid in the streets, bodies crushed and blood everywhere.

As bad as the sight of it all had been, the smell was almost worse. After these people had died it was a natural cycle that their bladders and intestines relaxed and emptied out. The smells of copper, iron, piss, and feces swirled into a horrible concoction that assaulted many people’s noses, while the sight alone traumatized them. People were crying and screaming, this was over their dead loved ones and their beloved homes being ripped away from them in a blur of death and destruction.

As it turned out, Lance’s parents didn’t survive the creature. They had been slashed out of the way in their car and had ended up dying on impact when the car hit a building.

There was crying. There was mourning. There was sadness.

Not from Lance though, he wasn’t crying. He was mourning. He was sad. But he was enraged too. It wasn’t that the creature had come, it was that it came and destroyed all that Lance had peacefully kept together. It was because it killed his parents and his friends and any chance that he would see them in future. It toppled his life over like a house of playing cards in a hurricane.

He was twelve when the first Kaiju came through the Breach and he was twelve when he wanted to help the world stop them.

After he and his siblings were sent the the United States two months later, Lance discovered that the creature, a Kaiju, had rampaged through Mexico and through Cuba, where it wasn’t stopped until it was almost half-way through Mississippi, having gone through Florida, Georgia and Alabama, leaving a nice large death toll behind it. It took five days to kill the beast.

In the United States, that’s where they learned the official name of the Kaiju that killed their parents, their family and their friends. It’s name was Thralk. Nearly a year later, when Lance had turned thirteen, another Kaiju surfaced and destroyed San Francisco, causing a 7.1 earthquake and completely obliterating the Golden Gate Bridge. It moved on, leaving San Francisco behind in favor of Sacramento, even then, even after Thralk took five days to kill, they weren’t prepared for another and so it took them longer to kill this one. This time, choosing to save the precious fighter pilots of the military, they decided to drop three nuclear bombs on it, killing it before it got to Sacramento. It-the Kaiju-along with Oakland was destroyed. Four hundred and seventy-two thousand people were dead when all was said and done.

It took three more Kaiju attacks for someone to create a solution. After those three attacks, humans learned. And thus the creation of Jaegers boomed into existence and so did the Pan Pacific Defense Garrison.  
In school, Lance learned about the Serizawa Scale which was a scale that categorized each Kaiju based on their water displacement, their toxicity levels, and ambient radioactivity that they gave off when coming through the Breach. He also learned about the Pan Pacific Defense Garrison and their weapons, the Jaegers.

The day Lance heard about the Jaegers was the day Veronica pinpointed the moment she knew he was going to sign up when he was old enough. It was a spark before, but that spark blew up into a roaring bonfire. And she knew, as his older sister, she was going to support him in anyway he needed.

 

The giant sliding, automatic doors of the mall opened wide for both boys. Inside the mall, stores were crammed next to each other, their doors open and advertisements flashing out the hottest sales. A large, gleaming marble fountain spouted water from its center, the basin polka-dotted with pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and even a few half dollar coins. There were so many colors and noises flashing and booming from stores that it was difficult to focus on just one.

Lance grinned at Hunk, a bounce in his step as the two boys entered the mall, and although there was a grin on Lance’s face, there was a nervous expression on Hunk’s. The Cuban boy didn’t need a map, didn’t need direction to where he was going, because he’d been going to the same place for two years, waiting until he was old enough.

“Listen, buddy, I don’t think you should try the simulation,” cooed Hunk, trying to softly and calmly negotiate Lance out of trying to join the P.P.D.G.. Hunk was a survivor of a Kaiju attack, these days most people were, but Lance knew Hunk was different than most people. Hunk had been in San Francisco when the Kaiju Vraok attacked and had seen most of the destruction first hand like Lance had. But unlike Lance, Hunk didn’t want to be put in a Jaeger, rather he wanted to fix them and improve them, not be in them.

“Oh come on, Hunk! Live a little!” joked Lance, but he knew using that term for what he was about to do was more ironic than anything. Hunk stopped, causing Lance to stop too and turn around.

“Lance. Going into the P.P.D.G. is where you go to live a little less, not more. I want to join too, but not as a Jaeger pilot,” said Hunk timidly. Lance’s smile fell and he looked away from Hunk’s big brown eyes and his concerned expression.

“I know that, but this is what I’ve wanted to do since I was twelve,” sighed Lance, trying to herd his thought into one coherent, singular thought, but it was more of a system.

“And see, I know that! And I’m cool with that, because I want to be there too, but don’t you think we should, I don’t know, wait a little? At least until we’re eighteen?” chidded Hunk, wringing his fingers together. He was nervous, Lance could tell.

“If we wait until we’re eighteen, we are losing one year that we could be using. In that one year that we could all…” paused Lance, stepping closer to Hunk. He was drawing this out to be as dramatic as possible and to prove a point. “-die. But you know, it’s just a year.” Lance shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets and meandered towards the huge open area of the mall where they held the practice Jaeger.

“I hate you when you do that,” mumbled Hunk. “I also hate how I listen to you, even when I know the possibility of us dying is slim to none at this point.” Lance smirked and pulled his hands out of his pockets, throwing one arm over Hunk’s shoulder and leaning on the boy.

“I love you too, bro,” chuckled Lance. “Hey, just for reference, how mad would you be if you had to ‘pilot’ that,” Lance pointed up at the giant replicated, stationary Jaeger that the mall housed, “Jaeger with me?” Hunk stiffened underneath Lance’s arm and his face turned towards him, the obvious nervousness and lowkey fear in his eyes. “‘Cause just so you know, it takes two people to pilot one, even if its a stationary and practice one. And I might have already signed us up as pilots.”

“You’re playing with me, right?” questioned Hunk, slowly. He and Lance came to a stop, standing in last in the relatively short line to try the Jaeger. Lance shook his head and felt his phone buzz in his pocket, he pulled it out and put it on mute, before slipping it back into his pocket, knowing it was probably his sister calling for him.

“No, not joking. You’re the only other person I’m really close to, so drifting with you can’t be hard. And relax the stationary Jaeger won’t be moving, we’ll be in a simulation,” answered Lance, moving both himself and Hunk forwards when the line shorted. A pair of girls passed by them, both of them from the school Lance and Hunk attended.

“I can’t believe we died on the first Kaiju,” snapped one of the girl, clenching her fist by her sides and glaring ahead. The other girl comforted the one, but also looked guilty as she did so.

“I’m sorry. The simulation was so real that I froze up. It was moving too much and you know how I do with movement like that. I get motion sick,” confessed the girl, using her hair to hide her face. Hunk paled and looked back at Lance, who was eagerly staring ahead.

“I don’t think I can do this, man,” confessed Hunk, his stomach grumbling in protest to the words simulation and movement. Sweat droplets began to form on Hunk’s hairline being caught on the orange clothe of his headband.

“Come on, please. Do this for me this once and I’ll never ask you to again!” begged Lance, seeing that Hunk was very serious about that. He needed his friend, need his co-pilot, just this once.

Hunk froze like deer in headlights and stared up at the Jaeger, gulping down the lump in his throat. He knew how important this day was to Lance and, dammit, he wanted his best friend to live out his dream, even if it might get him killed, but he also wanted his best friend, his brother, to stay alive and not die because of his dream job.

Hunk knew Lance and probably more than enough little boys and girls had always thought robots were cool and had dreamt that they were real and now that the Kaiju’s had invaded, some little boys and girls were growing up in the age where they existed, while others went through their childhood dreaming, only to hit their teens and see their dreams were real. And Hunk was guilty of being the later rather than the former, but now that they were real, he didn’t want them to be anymore.

“I-” he paused and let out a sigh, still trying to talk himself out of this. “Okay. I’ll be your co-pilot, but if I get sick and throw up, you’ll be the one scrubbing beef stroganoff out of every nook and cranny of that Jaeger head.” Lance fist bumped the air and then turned to high-five Hunk, who reluctantly high-fived him back. “This is the only time though. Not even if there is an emergency. First and last time, remember that.”

“Okay! That’s okay! That’s fine by me!” smiled Lance, happier than Hunk expected him to be. He bounced on his toes and they waited in line for a moment before Hunk’s phone began to ring violently in his pocket. He furrowed his eyebrows and pulled it out of the small pouch he attached to his belt. He looked at the screen, let out a startled hiss and tapped on Lance’s shoulder. He turned around, his eyebrows high and a pleasant smile on his face then he looked at the phone screens and his expression turned sour.

“Answer it!” insisted Hunk, pushing the phone at Lance, who stepped away from it, contorting his body in a way that resembled a cat being picked up.

“No! She’s going to yell at me! You answer it, she likes you!” haggled Lance, trying to sidestep Hunk’s advances. Hunk scowled at Lance and thrusted the phone at the boy, hoping he would answer it.

“No! She may like me, but she’ll still yell at me!” pointed out Hunk, practically throwing his phone at Lance, who slapped it down from the air and stared at it as it hit the ground, face down with a deafening slap of glass on tile. “Dude!”

“I’m sorry!” panicked Lance, bending down to pick up the still ringing phone. He decided to bite the bullet and answer the phone, ignoring the small spider web crack that had formed at the corner of Hunk’s phone screen. “Hello?”

“I knew you’d be with Hunk,” sighed Veronica. “Why didn’t you answer my call to your phone?” Lance looked at Hunk wide eyed and confused. Why wasn’t she yelling at him?

“I lost it,” lied Lance. Veronica was silent and then she let out a skeptical hum.

“Yeah, I’m sure you lost it. Anyway, we need milk and some green bell peppers so please pick them up on your way back from the mall,” lamented Veronica, the clicking of a pen in the background. Lance paused, pursed his lips and looked around.

“How’d you know we were at the mall?” asked Lance, glancing at Hunk, who furrowed his eyebrows. He shrugged, looking just as confused as Lance was. Both boys glanced around the mall, trying to see if Veronica was there and they just hadn’t seen her. She wasn’t there, she was just very intuitive.

“Well, let me see… it’s a Friday afternoon and you went last week on Friday, and the week before that on Friday and before that on Friday, so, if I had to guess where you were on a Friday afternoon, it would be at the mall,” pointed out Veronica, a snarky undertone to her voice. Lance rolled his eyes and glared at the floor, feeling attacked.

“Whatever, yeah, we’re at the mall. I’ll pick some milk and peppers up afterwards. I’ll see you guys later,” concluded Lance. “Love you.” He hung the phone up and looked at the screen, before rubbing his face to make sure glass wasn’t stuck to his face. He handed Hunk’s phone back to him, a apologetic smile on his face.

“Did you really have slap it out of the air?” retorted Hunk, looking at Lance with a sarcastic expression. He couldn’t stay mad at the boy very long, because his expression morphed into one of humor.

“It was funny,” laughed Lance, shooting finger guns at Hunk, while rolling his tongue across the front of his teeth.

“Yeah,” agreed Hunk. “It was pretty funny.” Both went silent for a moment before laughing again, this time harder than before. After a minute or two, both boy found themselves standing in line next for the Jaeger. Lance was surprised to see that Hunk had calmed down more since they arrived and looked like he would make it through without throwing up all of his lunch in the helm of the Jaeger.

“Are you two co-pilots?” came a man with a strange accent, causing Lance and Hunk to turn and look at the man. The first thing they notice was the crazy orange mustache and the strange blue tattoos that sat imprinted into the man’s cheekbones. He was also wearing a Pan Pacific Defense Garrison uniform with all sorts of patches and medals decorating his chest.

“Uh-yeah,” nodded Hunk in a sort of daze. Lance had to shake his head to get out of the daze he was in and nodded, throwing his arm around Hunk’s shoulder again, grinning cockily. “Lance McClain and this guy’s Hunk Garrett!”

“Okay, Mr. McClain and Mr. Garrett, I’ll have to see some form of identification to make sure you are of age.” Lance and Hunk dug in their pockets and pulled out their wallets. Lance picked through the overflowing amount of receipts he hoarded away and found his license, while Hunk pulled his license out without a problem. The man took both of their forms of identifications and turned towards the large desk that was set up to control the simulations of the Jaeger. He scanned them and came back nodding. “If you’ll follow me, we’ll get you in the correct attire and then you show us all your skills,” continued the redheaded man. “I’m Ranger Coran Ulteh, I’ll be the man gauging your simulation and if you can survive in a battle with a Kaiju.” Coran guided them to a small dressing room like area and shut the curtain, allowing them both privacy to dress and get situated.

“Dude,” whispered Lance. “This feels so weird.” He peeked through the curtain, taking thanks that Hunk had already finished putting the armor on. Lance pulled the curtain back, so that he and Hunk could chat while they waited for the other pair to leave the helm of the practice Jaeger.

“Yeah, it’s a little weird,” said Hunk shortly. He looked anxious, not as much as before, but still enough to concern Lance. He stood beside the other boy, resting his hand on Hunk’s huge bicep and trying to comfort him.

“It’ll be fine, I swear,” reassured Lance. Hunk nodded and turned to his best friend, his pleasant expression gone and replaced with a soft frown.

“What helps you to stay calm in this situation?” questioned Hunk. “I mean, I’m not scared, just nervous about seeing a Kaiju up close again.” Lance looked away, staring at his feet in thought, conscientious of his fingers tapping on Hunk’s upper arm.

If Lance was being honest with himself, he didn’t really even know how he stayed so unperturbed at the thought of seeing another Kaiju up close and personal again. He thought that maybe it was the sense of vengeance he wanted against them but it didn’t seem to be that, he was angry, but not to the point of going anime style on them. Maybe it was that in his heart, in his soul, he knew that inside the Jaeger it was just a simulation, this time anyway, maybe not later on down the road though. In a simulation you could have fun and restart later, because you knew you wouldn’t really get hurt, in real life, however, you couldn’t restart if you were defeated by a Kaiju, because you died and it wasn’t a video game, you didn’t get three lives.

“I just remember that once inside of that Jaeger helm, it’s all a simulation and that we won’t really be fighting those Kaiju’s, we’ll only be fighting their memories. Besides we’ve gone through worse, remember we’re survivors,” soothed Lance, watching Hunk take in his words and nod slowly as he processed each syllable and preserved it in the archive of his brain.

“Oh,” mumbled Hunk, a small nearly unnoticeable blush sweeping passed his cheeks. He gave Lance a huge smile of embarrassment and looked away.

“Relax, you have me as a co-pilot, so there’s nothing to worry about, big guy,” chuckled Lance, nudging Hunk’s side with his elbow. Hunk began to laugh and that caused Lance to follow him with his own laughter. Coran poked his head into the dressing area and held an almost joyous grin on his face too.

“Good to you two are in relatively high mood. Here are your helmet and follow me,” gestured the redheaded man. The two boys put their helmets on and followed him, quietly listening to him explain what they’d be doing once inside the helm. He was talking fast at some points, but would slow down to go off topic and speak about things completely irrelevant to the conversation.

“You boys will be fighting against the Kaiju, Kralox. The Kaiju that attacked the Philippines two years ago and was the largest Category Two we’ve seen yet,” informed Coran, guiding them to a elevator of sorts that would take them up to the helm of the Jaeger.

“But I thought Kralox was a-” started Lance, only to be hushed by Coran as he once again began to speak. The ride to the top of the Jaeger helm lasted a few seconds at most and during that time, Coran didn’t stop spouting facts about who killed Kralox and how they did it and basically giving Hunk and Lance plenty of information that would have made the defeat too easy.

Once at the top, Lance and Hunk stepped off the platform and watched the pair that had previously been in the Jaeger step out, disappointment overshadowing them and weighing down their shoulders. Coran waited politely for the two men to stand on the platform.

“I wish you two the best of luck and as for you two, there is always next time,” confided Coran. “You can still join the P.P.D.G. by going to the Kodiak Islands in Alaska and going through the training there, learning to better your drifting and fighting skills…” He kept speaking for a moment more, only waiting until he finished his sentence to hold a finger up in a waiting gesture. He stepped off the platform and following up behind the two boys.

Lance was the first to step into the head of the Jaeger, followed by Hunk who all but nervously stumbled over to where the large contraption that piloted the Jaeger was hanging from the roof of the helm. Lance had heard and seen people post videos on social media about how to get into one of the harnesses, so he was no rookie to it, but Hunk, on the other hand, was. Coran stepped in, seeing Hunk struggle, and helped the poor guy. Once situated, Coran stepped over the large step at the entrance of the helm and turned around to shut the panel.

“Good luck and happy hunting,” concluded Coran, shutting and locking the panel, leaving the two boy in the semi-darkness. Moments later the dark helm came alight with soft blue screens and and buttons that were projected in front of them. There was a light static in Lance’s ear and then a bouyastrist voice began to speak, one all too familiar, considering he’d just been talking his and Hunk’s ear off not too long ago.

“Alright Number Two and Number Three! We are about to initiate the neural handshake. Since this is your first time drifting, I assume, a word of advice: in the drift you will see and hear everything you partner has, you will be closer than you have been before, but the drift is not safe. Whatever you do, do not chase the rabbit,” advised Coran, seriously. Lance glanced at Hunk, who looked back at him and nodded. “Are you two ready?”

“Yes, sir,” said Lance and Hunk at the same time. There was a hum from the redheaded man and then Lance was sucked out of his body and tossed into a deep spiraling blue vortex. All around him, flashes of images passed by at the speed of light, some as slow as molasses, but no matter the speed, he could see them clearly.

Hunk was a child, wandering around his parents house, the babysitter in the living room. Hunk was ten, freshly moved to San Francisco, he was at school, making friends and talking. Hunk was twelve when his school had an emergency evacuation because of the Kaiju that ended up destroying the Golden Gate Bridge. Hunk was still twelve, moving back to Oregon. Lance saw himself in many of the memories, saw Hunk’s parents, saw tons of other people too. Things Lance didn’t know before were suddenly inside of Lance’s head, swarming like hungry fish. He could only imagine what Hunk was experiencing, it almost made Lance laugh, but since he didn’t have a corporal body he couldn’t. Then he remembered all the things that had happened to him and how he had buried them in the depths of his memories to hopefully never see the light of day again.

He was pulled from the Drift with a heaving gasp, sweat beginning to percolate on his hairline and his body stiff. Lance’s immediate instinct was to check on his best friend and was thankful to see that had come from the Drift in relatively good shape too.

“Neural handshake is stable and strong, well done, boys. The simulation is about to begin, be prepared,” noted Coran. Immediately the enormous screen in front of both boys began to glitch and flicker to life, showing the two a stretch of ocean waves and the largest of the islands of the Philippines, Davao.

Everything felt entirely real, like they were in the Philippines and not in some mall near Portland, Oregon. There was the horrid swaying of the Jaeger as it moved through the ‘air’, the near deafening sound of helicopters, the already sweltering heat of the sun heating up the inside of the helm and the haunting sight of Kralox in the water, getting increasingly closer to the islands. That was until the Kaiju noticed the Jaeger and began making headway towards them.

“Launching Jaeger,” said Coran and then the unmistakable sound of wire detaching from the practice Jaeger. Nausea set into Hunk and Lance’s stomachs as they felt as though they were falling through the air, until the bone jarring landing caused them to crouch in the harness that followed them.

They stood the Jaeger up and faced the direction that Kralox was coming from, readying themselves for the impending impact that was sure to come when the Kaiju slammed into them. Lance raised his fist, following what Hunk was thinking and they stilled in the Jaeger. Kralox was moving through the water sluggishly, watching them as if willing them to make the first move.

Kralox was bigger than the Jaeger that Lance and Hunk were piloting, but only a little taller and buffer. It stood on two legs, one set of arms was smaller than the other set of arms which Lance assumed were for attacking with, while the former were for balancing and walking on if the Kaiju decided to go on all fours. It’s head had an axe like skeletal structure, which could be used as a weapon if need be. The creature was a steel grey and pale toxic green color to its hide and had a large barbed tail swaying behind it. On its legs there were patches of purple glowing scales, its eyes and neck also had hints of this purple glow.

The Kaiju opened its mouth, silent for a moment but then the sound hit the Jaeger: a roar so loud and startling that the helm of the Jaeger they were in let it echo for a while after. While they were distracted, Kralox attempted to attack them, but while Lance had been out of it, Hunk was watching the beast carefully, his mind working at ten times the pace that it usually did. Hunk brought up the Jaeger’s fist, slamming the heavy metal hand into the Kaiju’s face, sending the creature reeling to the left, only for it to roar again and use its larger arms to slash and grab at them.

The impact of the Kaiju’s hit sent the Jaeger stumbling back a few feet and surprising the co-pilots. Lance was determined to win, while Hunk just wanted out, but was slowly leaning towards wanting to win, so they punched and hit with everything they could, stalling so that the plasma cannon could power up enough to send out a few shots at the beast attacking them. It took six minutes for the cannon to power up and it took them three to get ‘ol axe head in a headlock and put the cannon to its face. Thirty seconds later they managed to get four rounds into Kralox, waiting a few minutes to make sure the creature was dead (hint: it wasn’t).

They dropped what they thought was a corpse into the water and stepped away, thinking they were successful in their endeavors. As soon as their back was turned to Kralox, it sprung from the water, clamping down with its larger arms on their shoulder and bit into the arm of the Jaeger, causing a cry to leave the lips of the boys as they felt the pain of their mechanical counterpart.

In a last ditch attempt, Hunk slammed his palm on the button between himself and Lance, making the right arm of the Jaeger produce a sword from the hand. It was frantic, it was panicky, but they managed to flip the Kaiju from their back and slam it into the water, where they drove the sword through its chest and pulled up, cutting through the bones of its ribs, sternum and finally cutting its head from shoulder, confirming its demise.

Hunk panted, making a strangled sound that morphed into surprised laughter. He turned his head and looked at Lance, surprise, joy and the fading after tremors of panic passing through the expressions on his face.

“We...we did it!” cheered Hunk, resting his hands on his helmet covered head and letting out a huge relieved sigh. “I killed-no-we killed a Kaiju, well, not a real one, but who cares!”

“Yeah, we did, big guy,” beamed Lance. The static of the intercom in his helmet crackled to life and he waited for Coran to speak. Feeling Hunk’s overwhelming joy and overall excitement that they actually won against a Kaiju, one of the most feared creatures on earth.

“Congratulation, but I might have fibbed to you,” admitted Coran. Lance furrowed his eyebrows together and glanced up as if he would see the man, swinging on a wire about him like Spider-Man (fun fact: he was not, Lance was just exaggerating). “The Kaiju you faced was not a Category Two, but rather a Category Three, but rest assure that in itself is impressive for a couple of rookie cadets with no training whatsoever.”

“I knew it! I read all about Kralox in school and knew it was a-wait, wait. Cadets?” stuttered Hunk, freezing up where he stood, blinking rapidly.

“Of course, you passed the exam. Do you think we’re going to give this much talent up? The Pan Pacific Defense Garrison has read up on all potential pilots and mechanics on the coastal cities and we know all about you two,” informed Coran, startling Lance and Hunk. “Please, unbuckle from your harnesses and we’ll speak more.”

Lance and Hunk unbuckled from the harness and pulled their helmets off, feeling their minds unattach from the other and slip back into their body, becoming their own once again. They stood in front of the huge reinforced steel panel and waited for the panel to open. When it did, Coran stood, a pleased smile on his face and moved so they could step out of the helm.

“So how does the Garrison know about us?” asked Lance, confused and skeptical all at once. Coran clasped his hands behind his back and looked over the railings of the path, looking down at the growing line of people and passing pedestrians.

“Before Jaegers existed and we could defeat Kaiju’s within a matter of minutes, all survivors of the attacks were recorded for future reference, you know, just in case they wanted to join an association that would defeat the Kaiju’s like the P.P.D.G.,” started Coran, glancing over his shoulder to see Lance and Hunk staring at him. “You’re Lance McClain, one of the survivors of the Cuban incident. Little known fact, when Thralk arrived in Cuba, it left no survivors in Mexico, thus making you and everyone in the towns it destroyed the first survivors of a Kaiju attack.” He turned to Hunk, who had resorted to looking at his boot clad feet. “You’re Hunk Garrett, a survivor of the Kaiju, Zarorak. San Francisco, February of two thousand-fourteen, it took nearly six days to kill that beast and it still managed to almost completely destroy an entire sector of a city and kill a little over four hundred thousand people. Very lucky, you two are.”

“Oh,” murmured Lance.

“Oh,” echoed Hunk. The two of them looked at the redhead man before them and saw him messing with his mustache, rubbing his forefinger and thumb together, as if he was an oenologist, rolling a crystalline wine glass between his fingers to analyze the colorful liquid sloshing inside.

“If you decide to join the P.P.D.G., I’ll see you tomorrow at ‘oh six hundred here in the parking lot. If you don’t, then don’t come, I cannot force you. We have gone ahead and sent a representative to inform your families of your passing of our entrance exam. After this, it will be you who chooses your path,” finished Coran, spinning around (quite literally) and flashing the boys a smile. “When we get back down, please leave the uniform in the dressing room and you are free to return to your daily activities.”

That afternoon Lance left the mall with Hunk, completely forgetting about the milk and green bell peppers.

Lance entered the house later that evening and was startled to see his grandmother sitting in her chair, cradling her heart in her hands and her tears in her eyes. She didn’t even need to look up to know it was Lance and even then she didn’t turn away from the T.V. in front of her.

“Abuelita, I know you’re—”

“How long have you wanted this, Lance?” asked his grandmother, her voice strained. She said his name in the sentence, a clear sign that she was either angry or disappointed with him.

“I—” hesitates Lance, looking at his hands and noticing how thin and long his finger were, more interested in avoiding disappointing his grandmother. “For a long time. I want to help.”

“And you never told us?” croaked his grandmother, looking up at him for the first time since he entered the house. He tried to bring himself to meet her eye but the struggle was much to great for the boy so he settled for staring at her hands.

“You-Veronica too-would have tried to stop me. It’s dangerous and there are so many casualties, but this is what I want to do,” started Lance, trying to get his reasoning out before she spoke. “I’ve only ever wanted to help. And Hunk is going to be there with me so I’ll be in good hands and I’m absolutely positive that with the growing amount of cadets also joining that we’ll never have to actively engage with the Jaegers until we graduate from cadets! I’ll also be working with the famous pilot of Obsidian Rebel, you know, my childhood hero, Takashi Shirogane! He’ll probably teach one or two of my piloting classes!” He died down nearing the end of his statement and glanced to see the expression that his grandmothers face doned. It was not the one he expected. It was pride, not disappointed or angry.

“I’m so proud of you, mi hijo,” smiled his grandmother, her tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as her cheeks were pushed up. Lance was absolutely startled, his hands dropping back down to his sides in utter shock.

There was a crash from up the stairs and the heavy, loud thumping of someone coming down the stairs like a raging bull. Lance spotted her long black hair before he saw her face, but before he saw her face, he saw her livid expression. She was five feet of shaking fury and quiet desperation.

“You…!” growled Veronica. “You were supposed to wait! You were supposed to wait until you were eighteen so we could both go and apply!” She stomped towards him, gripping his shoulders in her small hands and shaking him.

“Wait! What?” gawked Lance, letting his older sister nearly strangle him in her rage. She stared at his face, dropping her hands to her sides and turning away from him, looking like she was trying to come up with something to say.

“I was going to wait until you were eighteen to go with you to join the P.P.D.G.,” grumbled Veronica, sighing and stepping away. Lance looked towards his grandmother for confirmation, his eyes widening at her gentle nod.

“But you’re in college,” pointed out Lance, turning back to face his pacing sister. She stopped, finding herself standing in front of the couch and plopped down onto it.

“I am, but I couldn’t just let my little brother go and sign his life away by himself. I wish you would have told me you were going to try the simulation today,” explained Veronica, resting her chin on her hand and looking up at Lance.

“Oh,” mumbled Lance. It seemed, to him, that he was doing a lot of that today. Either it was a surprising truth or a heartfelt confession, it was always something that was startling him into near silence. “Do the twins know?” Veronica shook her head and stood up, not being able to sit in one place, too anxious for her brother.

“They weren’t here when the officer came, they were at a basketball game,” said his grandmother, who stood from her chair and proceeded to the kitchen. Lance and Veronica followed her, seeing her gesture for them too.

“Good,” mumbled Lance gently, seating himself at the kitchen bar that was made in the wall of the kitchen and the dining room.

“You will have to tell them tonight,” stated Veronica, giving her younger brother a stern look. Lance looked at Veronica, having an impromptu staring contest. “Go tell them now while me and Abuelita make dinner.” He stood up, idling at the foot of the stairs, staring up at the light that beaming through the door on the right of the hall. He could hear the voices and sounds of a video game being played and then forced himself up the stairs.

He didn’t want the twins to feel like he was abandoning them or like he was choosing to avenge their parents rather than stay with them. Sure, they were thirteen and in junior high, but he would always see them as his little brothers, always worry about them whenever he heard of a Kaiju coming through the Breach. It was his given brotherly right to fear for and protect his little siblings and his older sister. It wasn’t something he could fight and it wasn’t like he wanted to anyways.

He reached the top of the stairs and stood before their door, peeking through the crack of the door. He saw Marco and Louis sitting in front of their gaming T.V., controllers in hand and determined expressions scrunching their faces up. It took Lance a moment to bring himself to knock, but once he did, he didn’t waste time to push the oaken door open and lean on the frame of the doorway. He pulled a carefree grin on his faces and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Hey guys,” said Lance, coyly. Marco (Lance was the only one who could distinguish the two from each other) glanced over and gestures the empty bean bag beside him.

“You beat the unbeatable, ‘oh Wise Master,” exclaimed Louis, suddenly thrusting the controller into Lance’s hands and continued to watch the screen. Lance was a little slow on the pick up, but soon remembered the controls and began to take the lead against Marco, who admittedly, wasn’t the best loser to live.

“Anyway,” started Lance, clearing his throat. “I need to talk with you guys about something.”

“Well,” chuckled Marco, “usually people talk and it’s usually about stuff.” Louis grinned and watched Lance’s fingers fly around the controller, his years of experience coming back to haunt the twins.

“This is the type of stuff that’s serious, though,” claimed Lance, using the game to keep from looking at the twins. He didn’t want to see whatever emotion they displayed when he told them. “I was at the mall today with Hunk-“

“Always at the mall on Fridays,” pointed out Louis. Lance sighed and nodded with them, letting their preteen attitudes run rampant.

“Right. When Hunk and I were at the mall, since the both of us are of age, we went to the practice Jaeger and tried it. We ended up passing the first Kaiju attack and were pulled from the simulator. The man, Ranger Coran Ulteh, told us we were accepted into the P.P.D.G. and that we would be leaving tomorrow for the Kodiak Islands,” finished Lance, quickly. There was a pause in the atmosphere and a lag of Marco’s character. He felt their eyes on him and continued playing the game, trying to ignore the way their breathe had hitched oh-so-slightly. A mere moment later, Marco’s character began to move around again.

“So, that’s what those officers were doing walking around the neighborhood. I thought they were getting desperate and were going to go door-to-door scouting,” joked Louis, but there was a slight hesitation in his voice that he was obviously trying to push past.

“Hunk and I will leave tomorrow morning and I wanted you guys to come with Roni and Abuelita. If you don’t want to that’s fine,” mumbled Lance, his fingers stilling on the controller, as he looked up to his younger brothers.

“Are you kidding me?” scoffed Marco, setting the controller down on his lap and staring at Lance like he was dumb. Lance’s chest seized up, his breath stopping in his throat. “If you’re going to the P.P.D.G. that means you’ll be piloting Jaegers and that’s, like, awesome! You’re going to be famous!”

Lance’s body relaxed and he let out the breathe he’d been holding in. Marco nudged his side and returned to playing the game.

“Did you think we’d be mad at you? Is that why you were hesitating?” noted Louis. Lance froze slightly, not realizing that they had seen and heard his hesitation to tell them.

“Dinner is about to be ready, you three!” yelled Veronica, calling from the bottom of the stairs. The three siblings ambled downstairs and began to eat.

After dinner, Lance crawled into his room, finding himself just standing in the center of the room. It was almost like he had astral projected, he felt so outside of himself.

Memories began to flood his head, reminding him of everything that he’d experienced in this house. He stared at his oak desk that was pushed into the corner of his room, the edges of it like a saw blade from when the twins took a pair of scissors to it when they were ten. The cork board above his desk filled with pictures and posters and flyers, reminders of all the school events and people he’d befriended in his life in Portland, Oregon. His eyes followed the wall to the window where it had witnessed a great many sneak outs and failed stargazing. On the wall beside the window, a large green marker dot stained the once tan paint, sending a cascade of memories collapsing over the Cuban boy who owned the room, making him remember that it was Veronica who had tried to throw the marker at him out of anger. His bed sat as calm as it always had, navy blue sheets and a handmade quilt laying bunched up at the foot, messily. There at the edge of his bed on the cream carpet floor was dark stain, a constant and infinite thing that never washed out or faded with time. That had been from when Lance and Hunk had been goofing around with paint in balloons and popped a few, spilling the paint on the floor.

There was a heavy weight on his shoulders as he boy moved about it room, grabbing the old sports duffel bag from his closet and filling it with clothes and his toiletries. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and set an alarm to wake up, before collapsing on his bed and falling asleep.

Lance woke up the next morning at five a.m. and showered, pulled his shoes on, gathered Veronica, his grandmother and the twins into car. They picked up food from McDonald’s, ate in and then proceeded to the mall parking lot where a large black military jeep sat before the doors, like a looming reminder.

Hunk’s family sat in their car, Hunk in the passenger, seeming to stare off into the distance, like he wasn’t really there. He finally came out of it upon seeing Lance get out of his car and slowly amble towards Ranger Coran Ulteh. The estranged redheaded man greeted Lance with a grin and a wave, turning and glancing passed Lance to wave at Hunk.

“I will be directing you two to the Alaskan base of the P.P.D.G. where you will be stationed for the next two years. We should get going, I don’t want to keep the Marshal waiting too much longer,” stated Coran, opening the back doors for Hunk and Lance. Both turned and gave a small meger wave of their hands towards their families in a silent and longing goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> Since I’ve a considerably busy person what with being in high school and such, I’m going to try to update when I can, so this fic will not have a set schedule. Plus, I want to make the chapters long and that does take quite some time.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @azallock (because I don’t know how to link it)


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